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The Dedham Train Station was built in 1881 and demolished in 1951. It was located where a parking lot, commonly called the Keystone Lot, is now. Judge Webster Thayer who presided over the trial, lawyers, journalists, and spectators would use the train to come to the Norfolk County Superior Court Courthouse for the trial, walking from the station to the courthouse. That makes this site the perfect first stop for the walking tour.

Site of former Dedham Train Station 

The Dedham Train Station was built in 1881 and demolished in 1951. It was located where a parking lot, commonly called the Keystone Lot, is now. Judge Webster Thayer who presided over the trial, lawyers, journalists, and spectators would use the train to come to the Norfolk County Superior Court Courthouse for the trial, walking from the station to the courthouse. That makes this site the perfect first stop for the walking tour.    

At the time, many people were deeply concerned by the potential implications of Sacco &amp; Vanzetti's trial and conviction. In the years that followed the conviction, lawyers for the two men received money from people all over the world. After numerous attempts to overturn the verdict, Sacco &amp; Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927. Governor Michael Dukakis pardoned them posthumously on August 23, 1977.

On April 15, 1920, a guard and a paymaster at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, were murdered in an armed robbery. Suspicion centered on local anarchists. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrant anarchists, were shortly afterwards accused of the robbery. The trial occurred in June and July, 1921, in Dedham, the county seat of Norfolk County. The trial drew international attention because many people believed that the defendants were unfairly accused because of their politics and ethnicity. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to death.

Site of former Dedham Train Station

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